"Star Wars" on Blu-Ray: Disc #8 – The Original Trilogy Archives – Happy Life Day!
As explained in this post, I’m reviewing the Star Wars Blu-Ray set disc-by-disc, and today, we take a look at the second of three bonus feature discs, this one containing archives pertaining to the Original Trilogy – including all the long-awaited deleted scenes! I explored the layout and kinds of content found on these Archive discs in yesterday’s post, so today, we’ll mostly focus on the features themselves. This being the Original trilogy, there’s a lot of amazing material to sift through.
Review of Disc #8 – The Original Trilogy Archives, coming up after the jump…
Buried deep within the limitless fathoms of the Original Trilogy Bonus Material is a video so shocking, so horrifying, so breathtakingly appalling that one wonders whether it was ever intended for human eyes. In only ten minutes, it manages to desecrate the good name of Star Wars with the most baffling of stories and artwork of the utmost repugnance. Should one venture to the “Episode V” features, travel to the dominion of the Imperial Fleet, and enter The Collection, one may find the armor of the dreaded bounty hunter Boba Fett. There, if one is stout of heart and strong in will, one may click a button marked “First Look” and witness their sanity perish before them.
This, my friends, is where one may find the first officially released footage from The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Not the entire thing, mind you, but the ten-minute cartoon portion of the show that introduced audiences to Boba Fett in 1978. It may very well be the strangest cartoon I’ve ever seen, a surreal blend of narrative incoherence and hilariously inept artwork. I can’t stress enough how bad the animation is in this special: the general style looks like something Dr. Seuss would have cooked up after a night mixing LSD and liquor, which is to say it looks ‘unique’ without looking ‘good.’ The character designs are absolutely horrid: R2-D2’s body is rubbery, C-3PO’s arms are eerily flexible and his head is attached to his body via a very bouncy spring, Luke and Leia both have the wizened facial features of lifelong smokers, and Han….poor, poor Han. They’ve turned him into a mix of Popeye and Brock from “Pokemon,” with eyes clenched shut, a long, craggy face, and a strange, deathly expression. Chewbacca makes it out relatively unscathed, and Boba Fett looks just fine; if he didn’t, I doubt the character would ever have been popular.
Of course, we meet Fett on a planet made of pink Jello. That’s not me being snarky: the planet really is made of Jello. Luke and the droids, searching for Han and Chewie, crash in what they think is a pink lake, but is actually firm and boyant. That may sound strange, but this is not where things get weird. A dragon made of Jello attacks Luke and friends, and they are saved by Boba Fett, riding a Jello dragon of his own, who uses a tuning fork to kill the enemy beast. This is not where things get weird. They invite Boba Fett, who sound like Hal from “2001,” onto the Millennium Falcon, where we see that a mysterious Talisman has put Han Solo to sleep, and does the same to Luke. What the hell is this Talisman, you may ask? I have no clue. Still not the weird part. Boba and Chewie go to a nearby city to find an antidote, where Boba breaks away from Chewie to have a secret conversation with Darth Vader. Strange, but still not the truly weird part.
The weird part is the ‘ending,’ for lack of a better term. R2-D2 and C-3PO had intercepted Boba’s communication to Darth Vader, so they know he’s evil, but when Boba returns, they don’t tell Luke until it’s almost too late, treating the information as an afterthought. And when they do, they call Boba “Vader’s right-hand man.” That’s just wrong. Then it turns out that Chewie had already figured out that Boba was a bad guy. But Chewie doesn’t really do anything about it either. Boba, who has more or less caught these morons off their guard, decides to fly away for no apparent reason rather than bring them to Vader.
What. The. F^$#?
After seeing the cartoon – which is said to be the best part of the Holiday Special – I completely sympathize with Lucas’ insistence on never releasing the whole thing. Ten minutes is plenty.
It’s also the most fascinating ten minutes you’ll find on Disc #8, and I don’t mean to belittle the rest of the content by saying that. The Original Trilogy Archives may be the most substantive set of Star Wars bonus features ever compiled, a seemingly endless treasure trove for fans of the series. But nothing, not the Interviews, Prop turnarounds, Concept Art, nor the legendary Deleted Scenes quite compares to watching Boba Fett use a tuning fork to save Luke Skywalker from a pink Jello dragon. There’s just nothing like it.
But as I said, the rest of the material, if not quite as…um…mind-boggling…is still amazing. The layout of the Bonus Features is identical to Disc #7, the Prequel Archives, meaning each film gets three or four locations, and inside each location, features are arranged into four categories: Overviews/Interviews, Deleted and Extended Scenes, The Collection, and Concept Art Gallery. Take everything I said about the Prequel Archives and multiply it tenfold – that’s how utterly captivating the material on the Original Trilogy Archives is.
The Collection continues to be one of my absolute favorite pieces. Over the past week, I’ve discussed my love of the model/puppet work on these films, and I can’t possibly describe how cool it is to look at the Death Star model in detail, or the Imperial Cruiser, or the Millennium Falcon, or any of the other dozens of iconic ships. We also get unused designs for vehicles, like an alternate version of Luke’s speeder, designs that were lost to time before this disc. But my favorite prop to play with has to be R2-D2; you’ve never had the chance to see this robot in such immaculate detail, and it’s a truly revelatory experience. When you zoom in, you can actually see brush-strokes in the paint! That blew my mind, and it’s a feeling I had over and over again perusing the Collection.
The Concept Art Gallery is equally cool, showing us original ideas for Star Wars locations, characters, and costumes at all stages of development. You also get to look at Ralph McQuarrie’s gorgeous, full-color concept art, images I’ve always loved and am overjoyed to have archived here. I haven’t had time to watch all the Overviews and Interviews, but what I have seen is brilliant. I’ve watched plenty of Star Wars documentaries over the years, so I doubted much of this information would be new to me, but that’s not the case at all. Even when the Cast and Crew are describing familiar aspects of the production, they do so from a fresh angle we haven’t seen before. If, while watching the movies, you are ever interested in a particular location, prop, model, etc., just pop in this disc – chances are, your questions will be answered in far greater depth than you could have imagined.
But the real highlight for most fans is going to be the Deleted Scenes; many of these have been the stuff of Star Wars legend for decades now, and watching them is like perusing lost pages of film history. All of the content is very rough, usually without music or special effects, and in rare cases, without color or sound at all. Regardless of visual quality, we’re lucky to have these scenes at all, and the visual degradation sort of adds to the charm.
The most expansive sequence is probably the first one on the disc – an alternate introduction to Luke Skywalker at Tosche Station on Tatooine. Here, we learn that Luke was actually watching the Empire’s attack on Leia’s ship, and he runs to tell his friends about it. His friends are an odd bunch of people, including a mean girl who calls Luke “wormy.” Luke’s best friend, however, is Biggs – seen as a rebel pilot at the end of the finished film – who in this sequence is about to leave Tatooine to join the rebellion. Luke and Biggs’ conversation is the kind of overly-talky exposition Lucas stayed away from in the finished movie, so it’s easy to see why the scene was cut. Nevertheless, it’s a really fun scene to see, and there are plenty of unintentional laughs courtesy of Luke and Biggs’ strange sexual chemistry.
In fact, most of the Deleted Scenes are unintentionally hilarious. A rough-cut of the Cantina sequence is a riot, mostly because the monsters of the Cantina all speak with thick British accents (“Star Wars” was shot in England). The funniest stuff comes from Greedo, who sounds like a Bond villain. Other sequences from Episode IV aren’t as meaty, but they’re still really fun to watch – I always enjoy hearing David Prowse’s voice coming out of Darth Vader, for instance.
“The Empire Strikes Back” has the most entertaining footage by far. First, we get an extremely long extended cut of Han and Leia’s Echo Base argument, which is entertaining in the number of times Han exits the frame only to come back once more. A scene between Luke and Leia in the medical bay reveals that the original cut of “Empire” had a love triangle between Luke, Han, and Leia; in this scene, Luke tells Leia he loves her. Knowing what we know from Episode VI, it’s very creepy. Finishing out the Hoth material, we learn that during the Empire’s attack, Wampas (the snow creatures) were originally supposed to storm the rebel base, and we get lots of riotously funny footage of malfunctioning Wampa costumes (the material was cut because the effect was so shoddy). On Dagobah, a clip devoid of audio gives us another creepy moment of romantic tension as Yoda seems to be fondling Luke’s neck passionately.
“Return of the Jedi” features the least funny Deleted Scenes, but also the most substantive. There’s a wonderful alternate opening where Vader reaches out to Luke via the force while his son completes his green Lightsaber – an important moment for a Jedi. We also get to see footage from the legendary ‘Sandstorm,’ which would have taken place after the action on Jabba’s barge. This scene was cut so early that dialogue was never recorded, and therefore the lines are all provided with subtitles. This leads to a very amusing moment where C-3PO’s dialogue is expressed simply as “whimpering.”
My recommendation for the Deleted Scenes is to get one or more friends together and watch them all in one go. It’s so much fun to work your way through these magical lost bits of Star Wars, especially if there are others there to help you riff on the more ridiculous aspects of the material.
I really couldn’t be more impressed with the features Lucasfilm assembled on this disc. There is so much to explore and to learn and to laugh at, and chances are you’ve never seen any of it before. This may very well be the most essential disc in the set.
From the “Guide to the Galaxy” booklet, here’s a list of all the features you’ll find on the disc:
Episode IV
Tatooine
--Interviews
--Tatooine Overview
--Mark Hamill Interview
--Anthony Daniels Interview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Tosche Station
--Old Woman on Tatooine
--Aunt Beru’s Blue Milk
--The Search for R2-D2
--Cantina Rough Cut
--Stormtrooper Search
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Aboard the Death Star
--Interviews
--Aboard the Death Star Overview
--Carrie Fisher Interview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Darth Vader Widens the Search
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
The Battle of Yavin
--Interviews
--Battle of Yavin Overview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Alternate Biggs and Luke Reunion
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Episode V
Hoth
--Interviews
--Hoth Overview
--George Lucas on Editing The Empire Strikes Back – 1979
--Irvin Kershner Interview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Han and Leia: Extended Echo Base Argument
--Luke’s Recovery
--Luke and Leia: Medical Center
--Deleted Wampa Scenes
--The Fate of General Veers
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Dagobah
--Interviews
--Dagobah Overview
--George Lucas on the Force - 2010
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Yoda’s Test
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Pursued by the Imperial Fleet
--Interviews
--Pursued by the Imperial Fleet Overview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Hiding in the Asteroid
--Alternate Han and Leia Kiss
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Cloud City
--Interviews
--Cloud City Overview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Labot’s Capture
--Leia Tends to Luke
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Episode VI
Tatooine
--Overview
--Tatooine Overview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Vader’s Arrival and Reaching Out to Luke
--Tatooine Sandstorm
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Endor
--Interviews
--Endor Overview
--Harrison Ford Interview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Rebel Raid on the Bunker
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery
Death Star II Space Battle
--Interviews
--Death Star II Space Battle Overview
--Deleted Extended Scenes
--Jerjerrod’s Conflict
--Battle of Endor: The Lost Rebels
--The Collection
--360-degree Turnarounds
--Video Commentaries
--Concept Art Gallery